Isaiah 11-12, Far As the Curse is Found

So, Isaiah chapter 11, be reading both chapters 11 and 12, I hear the Word of the Lord. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his root shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.

And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples, of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. In that day the Lord shall extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off.

Ephraim shall be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim, but they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east.

They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt and will wave his hand over the river with his scorching breath and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals, and there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

You will say in that day, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.

With you, with joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation, and you will say in that day, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted, sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously.

Let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word.

You don't have to be afraid, Joyce. Tina knows how to handle babies. Well, have you ever, Christmas is tomorrow, right? That day, talking about that day. You're about to get a lot of gifts. Have you ever gotten a, either gotten a gift, or maybe given a gift that is actually better than the one was asked for or expected?

You asked for it, maybe asked for a jacket, expecting just kind of a simple cloth jacket, but you got a high quality leather, maybe silk line jacket. You expected an iPod, but got an iPad. Your child asked for a game system and an Atari, and you went to the GameStop, and the friendly, knowledgeable staff person there recommended something better.

I don't know, what would it be? Shannon, an Xbox, a PlayStation? You can ask him after for what's the best. You asked for regular earbuds, but got Bluetooth, Bose, high quality earphones, noise canceling, whatever the keywords are.

I don't know what it all means. Ethan went out with us for a while. He's got something there, it looks like that. What you got or gave was actually much better than what you thought was coming. But then there's a moment, maybe, if you are the gift recipient, does it realize that you've gotten something.

That's better?

Maybe a moment of surprise, maybe even mixed with disappointment. I was expecting an iPod, an Atari, earbuds.

What's this?

Maybe if you're particularly obstinate, you don't realize you've gotten something better, you'll even be a little ungrateful at first for the gift, even if you fake gratitude. Have you ever gotten a gift that's much better than what you expected?

And then at least at first, not been grateful for it? Well, here we see at the end of this first major part of Isaiah, we've been in Isaiah since September. This is the end of this major part of the book of Isaiah starts at the end of the 12th chapter.

We're seeing that we're given a gift. Remember from chapter 9, to us a son is given and is far better than what we had thought, far better than what the people at the beginning of the New Testament, when that first Christmas dawns, what they were expecting.

They were expecting on that first Christmas, the Messiah, who they would saw as chapter 11 begins, they would certainly see him as the shoot from the stump of Jesse. They were expecting Messiah. But to be a political leader, a military leader who would expel their enemies and start a new age of glory for Israel, kind of like David and Solomon.

That's what King Herod was expecting that the Christ would be like. When the wise men came and they told him there, hey, the star up there, this means there's a sign that his birth, the birth of the Christ, he's coming.

And to Herod though, even though he faked, talking about faking gratitude, he faked like he was, he wanted to go worship him. But he knew that was a threat to his dynasty because the Christ was from the line of David as here, a shoot from the stump of Jesse, Jesse, David's father.

So he's legitimate royalty and Herod wasn't, you see. So Herod tried to snuff him out. He talked about being ungrateful for the gift. So one of the odd teachings that's originated in the church over the last 200 years, which we looked at in Sunday school this past year, called dispensationalism.

And it taught, and still teaches, that essentially the Jews in the New Testament times, even Herod, that they were basically right. That Christ was supposed to be a political and military leader, that his kingdom really was of this world, but they rejected him, which actually they didn't reject him as that kind of, as the ruler of that kind of kingdom.

You remember in John chapter six, they tried to make him, take him by force and make him to be the king of that kind of kingdom. But nevermind that. But dispensationalism says they rejected him because they supposedly rejected him.

Then God took back his gift of the kingdom and he started something else, something entirely different. The gospel, salvation for Gentiles for a while. He'll do that for a while until he goes back to plan A.

Now I've seen Christians who believe that, comment then that if Jesus say, you know, if Jesus really brought in the kingdom, it sure is disappointing, what they say. Because they wanted politics straightened out.

They wanted a dynasty. They wanted some military conquest. They wanted a new literal temple. They wanted, you know, lions eating hay. Not, not this, this reconciliation with God, this gospel, this church.

They got a gift that was much better, but they didn't like it. Yet we all from, from either from Herod or from people of the New Testament or if Christians today, we should have seen how great the gift was from the beginning.

As the song El Shaddai puts it through, though your word contain the plan, they did not understand. And still a lot of people today don't understand. Earlier Christians though, I think understood it. We see, we heard some of their words and Hark the Herald Angels.

You see how they interpreted all those promises in the Old Testament about Christ. Earlier Christians understood it. That's why they saw that Christmas wasn't the beginning of a, of a failed offer of the kingdom that was rejected and all that.

No, they saw it as the successful beginning of here in Isaiah that day when the curse of the fall began to be reversed. Now, sure, it may not be completed yet, but it began on that day so that his blessings would eventually extend far as the curse is found.

Now they could see that and sing about it because of passages like this, because, because you can see in this passage, Isaiah 10 and 11, or 11 and 12, excuse me. You could see in this passage, five features of the coming and to us now come king.

First, the royalty of the king. Second, the reign of the king. Third, the realm of the king. Fourth, the reach of the king. And finally the revelry in the king. Now, first we see the royalty of the king.

Now to be a king, you gotta be royalty, right? Not anyone can become a king. Maybe anyone in America can be elected president, but to be a king, you either gotta have two things going for you, either by birth or by bearing.

You are royalty if you are born into a royal line. In 2 Samuel chapter seven, the Lord promised David, you remember his father's Jesse. So when he talks about the root of Jesse, means that whole family of David, the Lord promised David that his family would be the royal line.

From David would come an eternal line of kings. So the legitimate king from God must be from the line of David by birth. That's why the New Testament begins Matthew chapter one, verse one, by describing Jesus as the son of David.

The one who fulfills that promise to David, the one who is a king because he's from royalty. When Jesus is passing by and they called out to him, have mercy on me, son of David, they were calling him, they were saying, you're the king.

They were giving respect to him as the king. Here in Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah picks up on a theme that he's already mentioned already in chapter four, chapter four where he said, in that day, in other words, in the last days, when the gifts are opened, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious.

This idea of the branch. And here that branch is a shoot from the stump of Jesse. All these words are just like pregnant with meaning. So much meaning in every word. Jesse, again, David's father. So it's by his family.

The branch comes from the line of David. He has royalty by birth. By seeing that and think of this phrase from a stump, because by saying that the king will be a shoot from the stump, the stumps come from stumps, come from trees when they're cut down.

Isaiah shows that for a while, the line of David will look like it's been cut down. It'll be cut down for a while. It could trees cut down. And then what might happen? What happens? It sprouts. So there's been a.

Alan, turn me down, I guess. OK, there's been a lot of imagery of trees so far in Isaiah. These last two chapters of the first. These last two chapters, the first section of Isaiah, what we've read, Isaiah 11 and 12.

All this weaves together. These last two chapters, 11 and 12, weave together the themes from the previous chapter. So here almost echoes almost everything we've been hearing over the past few months from Isaiah thus far.

So here again, the branch from a tree cut down trees. Been a lot of imagery to trees. The Assyrians, God's rod. Said they've been cut. And Chapter 10 are cutting down the trees in Israel, probably to use for their an army coming in, invading use for their campfires, for their tents, for their battering rams, for their impaling people on in Chapter nine, the Israelites.

Remember, they're in denial. All the trees are being cut down, but they say, oh, we'll replant with better trees. Will we plant cedars in place of sycamores? By the end of Chapter 10, the Lord threatens, you know, you're cutting down all the trees in Israel.

He'll cut down all the trees in Assyria. There'll be so few left that a child can count the trees left in your country. And so now in Chapter 11, the tree symbolizing David's line, the royal line, it'll be cut down.

So for a while, it looked like the promises is no good. And of course, that's what happened. 586 BC, the Babylonians came in, they destroyed Jerusalem, took all the Jews away and to exile. There was no more king.

And there's no more king for like 500 years. Until the first Christmas, you know, so it'll appear dead for a while. But as sometimes happens with stumps, it sprouts, that king, that coming king will sprout from the fallen dynasty of David.

Now, interesting that he's born in Bethlehem,.

The city of David.

But for safety, Joseph decides to move to the small obscure town in the north, near Galilee called Nazareth, Mary's hometown. In Hebrew, it's interesting because in Hebrew, the word Nazareth sounds almost exactly like the word branch, like the Hebrew word branch.

So some scholars think that when Jesus is called the Nazarene, when people say Jesus, the Nazarene, that they didn't really mean to call him by his hometown, but they were actually calling him Jesus, the branch.

And when Matthew says that Jesus was moved to Nazareth and grew up there, and he said that happened to fulfill the prophecy that he will be called a Nazarene, that Matthew actually meant that Jesus would be called the branch.

And that he was referring to this passage right here in Isaiah 11. Jesus's royalty by birth and by bearing. His bearing is the spirit he shows. You can tell he just he carries himself. He looks like a king in Chinese history.

One could be the emperor of China, either by birth, by being born the child of an emperor or by proving that you had the mandate of heaven. I was going to try to pronounce that term in Chinese, but I decided not to even try.

But there's a Chinese term means mandate of heaven. So they believe heaven. Had they believe bestows on the right ruler on the man who should be actually, in some occasions it was a woman be on the right on the right ruler, the mandate, the right to rule.

If heaven shows that the current ruler, maybe he doesn't deserve to rule and it'll show that by disasters, by bad performance, by losing in battle, by getting killed in a coup. That's one sure way to tell that he shouldn't be the king anymore.

Then he gets killed. Then the mandate then belongs to the one who that heaven shows has that right by his success, his victories, his strategy. He was able to carry out a successful coup. Here, the coming to us, actually the one who's come, the come king has a particular bearing.

It shows his mandate. He has in verse two,.

The spirit of the Lord.

That's not just a claim. You know, like some claim someone today, he's quote anointed because they get a thrill up his leg, their legs whenever he speaks. No, this king shows he has the spirit by his by three pairs of things, by his wisdom and understanding as intellectual powers, not only being knowledgeable, but he's a sage.

He's a wise man. He's able to cleverly avoid all the doctrinal traps. His accusers were trying to lay for him in the last week in the temple. Second, by the spirit of counsel and might, his leadership, the authority with which he taught, you know, they just they were just wow.

He teaches with authority. Not just like someone who's passing on other stuff. He's heard the spirit of knowledge.

And fear of the Lord.

You say his piety, his reverence for God, his his hallowing the name of the father, his praying, not my will, but yours be done when everything in him wanted not to drink that cup. The spirit of the Lord was on him.

And you could tell by not just just his birth, but his bearing. He had the mandate of heaven. Well, then there's the reign of the king. That is the nature of his authority from verses three to five, unlike many rulers who delight.

In the power and the perks.

That they have in their reign, you know, being able to command armies, being able to fly in helicopters or their specially equipped 747 and live in luxury. This king will delight not in those kind of things, but in the fear of the Lord.

Does it seem strange to delight in fear? Because that's an odd thing. It sounds a little odd. Anyway, he delights in fear. Actually, it's not strange at all. Now, people will often drive hundreds of miles, maybe to see some great sight, something to strike a kind of fear in them.

That they delight in.

Maybe go to the Grand Canyon and be awestruck by how vast it is or how small they are by comparison. It's just all that's a kind of fear here. The king will delight in awe for the creator of that canyon.

So he refuses to put the Lord to the test. He fears using the Lord for his own selfish purposes, even when he is hungry after a 40 day fast. His reign, his authority isn't used just to give himself luxury and in royal palaces like Saddam Hussein.

What do you use his reign for his reign? He had 80 palaces across Iraq containing more than 1000 buildings. Just these grandiose mansions, guest villas dominated by marble surfaces and gold while his people lived in poverty.

Well, that was his reign. The reign of this king, the king coming here already come for us is entirely different. He doesn't use the Lord to serve himself, but to serve. As we heard in Sunday school, he emptied himself, taking on the form, the clothing of a servant and gave his life a ransom for many.

In his reign, in verse three, he shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear. Otherwise, he's impartial. Justice is blind. It's one of the symbols for justice is a blindfolded woman with scale.

Seems odd to have a blindfolded wife. So does it see these are the respectable people? I'll give them what they want. These people, they can't do anything for me. He didn't look to see if one of the two men disputing before him, you know, this is the rich man.

He can give me a good gift. He can give me a bribe. He can help me with my reputation. Or maybe this is the one, this is the side with the most votes in it. Judges sometimes are elected. They cater where they get the votes.

They see that or maybe they look and see he's part of my race. He's in my race. So I'll decide in his favor. This person is not my race. So I won't. He's a policeman. Well, he's always right then. Does he belong to my race?

Well, then he's definitely the victim. And that's the way many want authority, reign to be applied today. But his reign isn't like that. He judges in verse four with righteousness, even, even the poor, so that they get what they deserve.

And sometimes that means they aren't ignored. The rights are not ignored just because they can't give a bribe. You know, like what he said at the beginning of chapter 10, the iniquitous decrees, the unjust judges Isaiah denounced at the beginning of chapter 10.

Neither is there a quote, a preferential option for the poor that so-called liberation theologians today say that God has, although actually in Leviticus, he said, don't judge for or against the poor.

Don't, don't take that into account. They say we should have that too. No, he's, he's right. He decides without fear, what you can do for me or against me or without favor. You're on my side. You're part of my tribe.

You're one of my people. He gives justice to the meek of the earth, to those who don't seize and assert and demand what they want. So they, the meek inherit,.

Inherit the earth.

So in his reign, notice that he strikes the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked. It's a striking image, isn't it? His, his, his kingdom comes through his, his word.

It's where his, his reign, his authority comes from the power of his word. He speaks his word even now. And it cuts to the heart, right to the marrow of our bones. His word has the power to turn enemies into followers, to raise the dead and to give faith to people.

But by the power of the spirit, his word exposes our sin, exposes his righteousness to us. So we see how far we've fallen short of it. The judgment that we face with his word, he strikes us who are in the world and it either brings us faith and so kills the wickedness in us or it brings us condemnation.

If we, if we respond by, if we don't repent. So right now he is speaking his word.

It's the sword of the spirit.

As his word goes out, he's striking the earth with it right now and putting his enemies under his feet by it. He rules by his word and he's clothed, you know, not with the robes of ostentatious ornamentation, crowns and things seized from other kings.

Like David conquered a little kingdom called Raba in second Samuel chapter 12. And David took a crown from that king made of 75 pounds of gold. Imagine 75 pounds of gold. He put it on his head and they were expecting at the time of the New Testament, that first Christmas, they were expecting another king.

Like that.

But what they got was much better. A king clothed with righteousness and faithfulness, who he, who he is, may be hidden by the humiliation, but you are the condense, condense, I can say a condensation of the incarnation veiled in flesh, but you can see his reign in his righteousness, in his faithfulness.

He keeps his word.

He does what he says. He is who he is. He's faithfulness. That's what he wore. That's the clothing he put on on that first Christmas and the incarnation. He clothed himself as a human being, but as a human being who was perfectly faithful and righteous.

So that's his reign. His reign and shapes his realm. Realm is where he rules. We see that in verses six to nine. Now, two aspects of his realm are revealed here. First, the time of his realm and the place of his realm.

First, the time. Notice the wolves and lambs and leopards probably one of the most favorite parts of this passage. We've got the wolves and the lambs and the leopards and the goats and the calves and the lions.

They're all living together. Peacefully petting zoos. Take your kid to a petting zoo and it will feature tigers. No more just, you know, boring sheep and goats to pet. Imagine going to a petting zoo and there's a tiger there, grizzly bear, an alligator, a cobra.

Pet the cobra, kids. Some would argue that since we can imagine this as literally happening, then it must be literal. Okay, maybe it will be literal. But then, therefore, they then go another step. So extrapolating from that.

In other words, understand.

There's you.

I could think you can disagree whether this is literal or symbolic. You know, whatever. I'm not gonna argue about what they will say that you can't imagine it. Therefore, it must be literal. And therefore, extrapolating further, even from that, that the entire reign of Christ hasn't happened yet.

That is not even started yet. And so, therefore, the time must all be future. That we didn't get the gift we were expecting on Christmas. We got an IOU. We got something on layaway. Maybe we'll get it later.

But that both misses the point of what this passage is about and is illogical and unbiblical. So first, now, if you want to believe that this is describing a future time when literally lions will eat straw like an ox, that carnivores will become vegetarians so that we can have formerly dangerous predators in petting zoos for three-year-old kids to feed by hand.

You know, if you want to believe that, that's just fine. I may be right. I'm not gonna argue about it. I hope, I hope.

That that's true.

That this carnivore right here doesn't have to become a vegetarian because I don't, I like my steaks. Sorry, I like them very much. But understand the main point right here summed up in verse nine. They, that is the things that hurt us, everything, all the things of this world that hurt us shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.

The curse of hostility is taken away. There will be peace. Now we should all agree on that and agree that that is the main point here. You want to disagree about other things? That's fine, but agree on that.

That's the main point. Now the extrapolation that since we don't have it perfectly yet, there were none of us here are gonna be so crazy as to take our three-year-old to a petting zoo with tiger there and a grizzly bear, right?

We don't have it perfectly yet. The extrapolation then that it hasn't even started at all that the time must all be in the future. That's illogical first and it's unbiblical. It's illogical because just because something isn't fully perfected yet doesn't mean that it hasn't started.

You know, just because you're not perfectly fluent in English or in Chinese yet doesn't mean that you haven't started to learn it. No one would think like that, right? You're not perfectly fluent and so you haven't even started yet.

No, it's illogical. It's unbiblical because we've already seen in Isaiah in chapter nine, verse seven, remember is when the son is given.

The first Christmas.

When Jesus was ministering on earth. That's the tipping point. He then has the government on his shoulders and it, the government, the kingdom, the rain produces his realm. It says the government, his government and remember what it says next?

Peace. Peace like we find here in chapter 11 and peace, his peace will increase forever and it will increase forever from, in other words, beginning at and then continuing onwards from that time. What time?

The time of the first Christmas from that time, it will increase and then forever. Well, here in chapter 11 is an illustration of that peace. It has, it has started with the first Christmas. It started with peace with God.

He put his anger with us away. The Lord Jesus said that the kingdom of God is currently in your midst, that he cast out demons by the finger of God. It is proof that the kingdom of God has come with him, that his miracles are proof that the reign of God has begun.

Paul said in first Corinthians 15, that this reign, that it must continue. Thus implying that it has already started and must continue until it has put every enemy under his feet implying that for a time, the realm of God is here alongside the rebellion of the world.

They're kind of coexisting. They're together in this world. You have the reign of God with this, with this peace. The peace of God lives alongside the still ongoing hostility of a sin twisted creation.

On that first Christmas, we were indeed given that gift of his reign, creating his realm. It's a place of peace. It's now, even if it's not yet perfected. Well, that's the time of his realm. What about the place?

Oh, Lord, where is Israel? Now, at the first Christmas, they thought it would be in the land of Israel, you know, that geographic location. You want to go to the kingdom of God? You go there, book of flight to Israel.

And in here, notice the realm, though, is first in verse nine. It looks like it confirms that my holy mountain, verse nine. In other words, Zion, where God lives in that temple in Jerusalem. But Hebrews chapter 12, verse 22 says that we believers have come to Mount Zion, the realm of Christ, the church.

We have come there by faith. When God saved us. So the church should be a realm of peace, a hostility free zone where we are predators using each other for what we can get out of each other. Churches that are known for their politics, for their fights, contentious business meetings, just suspecting each other for members who use each other for what they can get out of them, for for grinding pastors and spitting them out every few years or for pastors who abuse members, burden them with guilt for not giving enough, constantly crusading against somebody.

There's always some fight going on. That shows that such churches are not in the realm of God where Christ rules, because where he rules, there's peace. There's nothing hurting or destroying.

No one hurts,.

Destroys or uses or abuses.

Where he rules.

It's a hostility free, peaceful place. No, no danger lurking, nothing hurtful striking. Now, some could say, well, that's all fine, but that's a New Testament reinterpretation. Now, how are people in Isaiah's time supposed to see that?

Notice at the end of verse nine,.

What is parallel?

Understand sometimes Hebrew poetry, two lines are parallel to each other. They're saying the same thing and they'll illustrate one by the other. They'll explain each other. Notice at the end of verse nine, what is parallel to my holy mountain?

What comes next? What explains my holy mountain? Isaiah chapter 11, verse nine, says the Lord's holy mountain is, where is it?

For the earth,.

The whole earth.

Shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. He will reign not just in a land in the Middle East, but until his realm of peace and delighting in the fear of the Lord, fills the whole world as far as the curse is found.

And that brings us to the reach of the king. In verses 10 to 16, two truths here about the reach of the king. First, who he reaches. And second, how he reaches them. First, who does he reach? You know, at the first Christmas, people were expecting that he would, he would reach the Jews anyway.

We're thinking, well, he's going to reach our kind of people.

He's for us.

He's going to reach his own ethnic group. He's going to reach that one nation. But here, in that day, Isaiah says, it was that day when the sun is given, that first Christmas that brought us the king who brought the kingdom.

That's that day. The root of Jesse, wait, that's odd, isn't it? Do you notice what's odd? Before we get to, before we get to the reach of the king,.

Who he reaches,.

What's this him about being the root?

Speaking of who, who is he?

Who is doing the reaching? Earlier in verse one, is it the same thing as verse one? Do you notice the difference? He was the shoot of Jesse, from the line of David. In other words, he's the branch that comes from the stump.

Stump, trees cut down, he's the branch that sprouts out. Now they knew that at the first Christmas. That's what they were expecting. They were expecting a king from David's dynasty. They called him the son of David.

They knew that. That's not different. But now in verse 10,.

He's the root.

That's a different thing. How can the same person be a root and be the shoot? You know, root is the origin. Root is the source of life. The shoot is the sprout.

It's the fruit.

It's the product. How can he be both? Well, it can be. If the same one who fulfills the promise to David, the shoot was the one who made it all the way back in 2 Samuel chapter seven,.

The root.

If the son of David is David's Lord.

Who is he?

He's Emmanuel, God with us. The mighty God.

In that day,.

The root who is also the shoot will be, it says a signal like a banner to rally around people from all the world will see him and and draw all kinds of people to him. Well, I gave away the answer. He's he's he's raised up to draw all kinds of people.

He's raised up for who to draw who? Well, was he sent in that day, that first Christmas to offer a political kingdom to an ethnic group in the Middle East? Is that all it's about? That one nation? Was the Messiah supposed to be a military leader who would expel their enemies and start a new age of glory for Israel?

Just for Israel? That's the gift they were expecting on that first Christmas. But but is that what they should have been expecting? Is that really what was promised in the Old Testament? Is that the plan?

The word contained and we can kind of say, yeah, we understand why they didn't see it.

No.

Verse 10 says he's for he's for who. This banner is for who? Who is it signaling?

Who is it drawing?

The peoples, it means literally the nations means the Gentiles. It means all of us. That's exactly how Paul translates the same verse in Romans chapter 15, verse 12. He translates it there. The root of Jesse, the root will come.

He's the Christmas gift. Even he who arises to rule. Who? Israel?

Just them?

No.